How to make a homeless
application
Before you can make your homeless
application you should bring certain items to help us in
investigating your claim that you are homeless.
Making a homeless
application
The interview
Information you give us
Home visits
Medical assessments
Decisions
Challenging our decision
Making a homeless application
What should I bring with me to the Housing Options
Centre.
The caseworker will also tell you what documents to bring to your
interview if these have not already been provided and verified.
These will normally be:
- Proof of your identity (for example your passport, birth
certificate or marriage certificate)
- Proof of your income (for example your benefit books and/or
most recent payslips)
- Proof of your children's identity (their birth
certificates)
- Proof of any tenancies or licence agreements you may have or
used to have
- Proof of any illness or disability you may have (your medicines
and letters from your GP or hospital doctor)
- Proof of your immigration status (your passport, letter from
the Home Office)
- Proof of your homelessness (for example a bailiffs warrant,
notice to quit or exclusion letter)
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The interview
Who will see me
and what will they ask me?
When you arrive you will be interviewed by an
Assessment Officer (who will normally be the officer assigned to
your case).
They will ask you questions about your housing history and why you
think you are homeless. They will also want to know about other
people in your household.
How long will the
first interview take?
Your first interview may take up to an hour. It is important that
we collect as much information about you as possible, in order to
help you quickly. In some circumstances when applicants have
brought along all the
information and proof we
require, we are able to make a decision about your application
straight away.
Can I be seen by a woman
Assessment Officer?
Yes, let the Assessment Officer know and we will arrange this for
you.
Can I be seen in a private
interview cubicle?
Yes.
What happens if I need to
be interviewed in another
language?
Yes we can arrange that for you by booking an interpreter to attend
a case interview with you. However if your housing problem is an
emergency we may use `Language Line', which is a service we use to
speak to you in your own language.
Can I see the same officer each
time I visit the office?
If you have an emergency and your Assessment Officer is not
available, you can ask to speak to the Duty Assessment Officer. As
this may not be your Assessment Officer, you may be asked questions
that will require you to repeat information you may have already
given to us. Please be patient if this happens.
What if I am not able to come to the
Office?
In some circumstances we can arrange an interview outside the
office, for example, if you are in hospital and are unable to call
into the unit because of your illness.
We will then arrange for one of our officers to interview you in
hospital, or at a convenient place.
Please phone us on 020 8430 2000.
What do I do if I'm homeless
when the office is closed?
For people who become homeless when the office is closed, we
operate an out of hours service.
You can contact the out of hours service after 5.30pm each
weekday, or anytime at weekends and bank holidays:
The out of hours service
Phone: 020 8552 9587
You will be put through to an Emergency Officer who will ask you
various questions to assess whether we will be able to assist you.
The service is for emergencies only and is not able to give general
advice or assist in dealing with any problems relating to temporary
accommodation that has already been provided.
Also you can attend your local police station for advice and
directions to our emergency service.
What happens if I need to see my Assessment Officer
again?
Once an Assessment Officer has been allocated to
your case, they will be the person who investigates your
application and makes a decision.
If you need to come back to the office to see your Assessment
Officer, please contact them to make an appointment first to ensure
they are available to see you. This will also save you time as s/he
will be able to inform you what you need to bring with you, and may
save you unnecessary visits.
In the case of an emergency you will always be seen. You may,
however, not be able to see your Assessment Officer.
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Information you give us
What do
we do with the information you give us?
We
follow our procedures in relation to confidentiality, however you
will be required to authorise us to investigate the information you
give us. During the investigation we carry out various enquiries
including checks with benefit agencies, social services, GPs,
previous landlords, credit agencies and others to check the
information you give us is accurate.
We are also required to give information relating to your
application to other councils or departments, if you are placed in
their area.
We also have a duty to protect public funds, and may use
information stored on our computer systems for the prevention or
detection of fraud. In some cases, we will liaise with the police
to check or give information on clients.
What happens if some of the information I have given
changes?
You must keep us informed about any
changes in the information or circumstances which you have
given to us.
If you are not sure if you need to tell us something, please speak
to your assessment officer, who will be able to advise you. We
suggest you take the view that it's better to tell us if you are
not sure.
False or
misleading information
We are
under a duty to protect the public funds we administer and may use
the information you provide to match it against other information
held by the council, for example Council Tax, or Housing Benefits.
We may also disclose any such information to other public bodies,
or similar external agencies, for the purpose of the prevention or
detection of fraud.
You are required to sign a declaration on the application form,
which states that you will give us correct information and will not
withhold relevant information, or mislead us in any way.
You must also keep us informed of any changes in your
circumstances.
The declaration informs applicants that they will be liable to
prosecution if any of the information is subsequently found to be
false. We will prosecute, and if you are found guilty, you could be
ordered to pay a fine of up to £5,000, as set out in Section 214 of
the Housing Act 1996, Part VII.
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Home visits
What do the
visiting officers do?
The Homeless Prevention Visiting Officers will carry out an initial
visit. They will visit you in your home before you actually become
homeless and will try and prevent your homelessness from occurring.
Where appropriate they will also discuss alternative ways of
assisting in resolving your housing problems.
They are asked to complete a report for the Prevention/Assessment
Officer dealing with your case and they will confirm homelessness
from your landlord if they are present at your last settled
accommodation. The visiting officer will not discuss any personal
details with your landlord, other than your living
arrangements.
If you are approaching us while living with friends or relatives we
will need to arrange a visit to this address to confirm that you
are homeless, before making a decision on your application. We may
also arrange visits to other addresses you have given us. If this
is the case we will have to wait for these visits to be completed
before we are able to make a decision.
How long does it take to
make a visit?
The Homeless Prevention team will make an
appointment to visit you during the period of your notice of
becoming homeless. The Housing Options Centre will carry out a home
visit within 48 - 72 hours of your application and interview.
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Medical assessments
How do we carry out a
medical assessment?
We ask you to complete a self assessment form for each person with
a medical condition as part of your household. We will also write
to your GP or Consultant for additional information. Our Medical
Assessment Officer will assess the information received and make a
recommendation on your medical condition.
Will a medical
assessment delay my decision?
This depends on the reason for the medical
assessment. In some cases the medical assessment will determine
whether you are priority homeless, and in such cases we will need
to wait until this is complete, before we are able to make a
decision on your application.
If the assessment is being carried out to assist us with any
decisions relating to your temporary accomodation, we may not have
to wait until it is completed before making an offer.
Who makes the
decision on whether I am a medical
priority?
Our Medical Assessment Officer will assess the information
available and will make a recommendation to us, who will then make
the decision on your application.
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Decisions
How long will it take to make
a decision?
If you are able to bring us all
the information we require (a letter is available which
explains this information), and we are able to confirm what you
have told us, we may be able to make a decision on your application
the day you have a full interview.
We also may have to carry out investigations overseas if necessary
and this can also hold up the process of making a decision.
How can I help speed up
the decision on my application?
You can help in a number of ways:
- By bringing documents
to us when asked by your caseworker (we will need to see originals,
but once we have seen them we are happy to photocopy them and
return them to you)
- By giving us accurate information about your housing
history
Who makes the
decisions on homelessness applications?
Your Assessment Officer makes the decision. The
decision will be based on information collected and investigations
undertaken.
How will I know what the
decision is?
When a decision is made on your application, your caseworker will
write and tell you what our decision is.
If the decision is not to accept a duty to provide you with
temporary accommodation, or to refer you to another council, the
letter will set out the reasons why.
If the decision is to accept my
claim of homelessness what options do I
have?
If you are found to be eligible, in priority need, not
intentionally homeless and therefore an accepted homeless case we
can offer you accommodation in the private sector. This is through
our
Qualifying Offer scheme which is an alternative to
Temporary Accommodation. A
Qualifying Offer property gives you more choice over where you
want to live and the kind of property you can get.
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Challenging our decision
Can I challenge the decision
on my homeless application?
Yes, if you are unhappy with the final decision you can request a
review of our decision.
When you receive your decision you will also receive information on
how to request the review, which you will need to present within 21
days.
How will the review be
dealt with?
We will consider the information contained on the
review form completed by you and consider all the information held
on our files, in essence this will be a new investigation. The
officer who deals with your request will not have been involved in
making the original decision and will be a senior officer to your
Assessment Officer. You may be asked in for a further interview
with the Review Officer to discuss the information available on
your case.
Once the officer has carried out the review of your case, they will
write to you setting out the review decision, giving reasons.
If you are still unhappy with this decision, we will be able to
give you details of independent advice agencies that would be able
to advise you further.
Sometimes we don't treat additional information you send us as a
formal request for a review. We may simply ask your caseworker to
consider the new information to see whether it allows us to accept
a duty towards you.